The Rhyme Is Losing To The Riddling
by butimbroken
Summary: Buffy/Angel. AU. They wrote a song together. COMPLETE.


It started with a notebook.

It was just there, he didn't think much of it when he glanced over. He didn't think much of it when he pulled it into his lap and began reading the words written before him. He read through it about three times before he finished the song on the closest thing he could find - a neon green sticky note. He put it on the side of the page just in time for Lindsey to catch him.

And that was when he learned it wasn't Lindsey's notebook.

He knew it wasn't hiss handwriting but he figured it'd been his girlfriend or something having started something. "Sorry," he replied after his friend explained it belonged to some girl named Buffy Summers and he had just been looking it over and was helping her finish a few songs.

"You don't even know who that is, do you?"

Angel shrugged. It didn't ring any bells.

Lindsey rolled his eyes. "She's an actress, on a TV show about vampires?"

Nothing but blank looks.

"How can one person be so out in the world and yet so under a rock? Anyway... she's an actress, sometimes she also writes songs. I worked with her before when I did an episode of her show a couple years back and we've been in touch lately since they're doing some musical episode soon."

Angel shrugged again. He didn't really watch too much television when he was either working on an album or when he was on tour and that didn't leave much time otherwise. He told Lindsey he was sorry again and wrote a note on another sticky pad sheet and put it just above the other. "Well, you can give that to her, throw it away, whatever works alright?"

OoOoO

A week passed, he'd all but forgotten about the whole thing. His bandmate, Spike, handed him a phone and walked off. Angel stared at his retreating head for a moment before just rolling his eyes. "Hello?"

"Hi," came a female voice. "Is this Angel?"

"Yep."

"Okay, well, hi. You finished my song."

And then he knew who it was. He tried apologizing again but she cut him off, this Buffy girl thanked him and told him she loved it. She then started to nervously ask him about his thoughts about perhaps recording the song or if he would alright signing some papers for writing credits and releases if he wasn't up for it. "I'll think about it," was all he told her before making up an excuse to get off the line.

OoOoO

Lindsey was the one who brought the recording to him. "I convinced her to do a quick demo," he'd said. Somehow Linds had talked him into doing his side of it and a few days later a sloppy finished product of what was just thrown together was in his hands.

Angel was pretty sure he listened to the song on repeat for the next two days straight.

OoOoO

"I want to release it."

"Oh. Okay. I already did all I needed on my end I think so..."

"With you."

Silence.

Lots of silence.

"What?" she finally said.

"I want to do the song with you. Really record it, put it out there. It could be, like, a stand alone single."

She laughed. Hard. "That's funny."

"I'm not joking..."

"I'm not a singer! Get someone else to do it!"

OoOoO

It took a lot of convincing but the song was released, his band Angelus featuring Buffy Summers. He still hadn't met the lady, they recorded everything separate and only ever spoke on the phone and yet blew up together overnight with the song hitting the world.

Hell, even when they made a music video for the song they hadn't even been shot together.

OoOoO

Three more songs were written together, released but not on as grand of a scale over the summer. One more got a number of radio play and the others were just out there, being enjoyed.

OoOoO

"How would you feel about performing at an awards show?"

Silence.

"Performing how?"

"Singing. With my band."

Laughter. "No."

"Why not?"

"I'm not a singer! I have terrible stage fright. That sounds like a nightmare."

"Aren't you some big shot TV star?"

"I would not say that but... that's different. That's not singing. And, that's not singing on some huge ass stage in front of thousands of people right there in front of me and millions at home."

"It's not that big of a deal."

Laughter again. "You might be crazy."

OoOoO

"Where are you?"

"Uhh... why?"

"Because I'm in LA."

"Oh."

"And I thought we could build up to the grander stage. My friend Lorne owns a very small nightclub downtown."

"Ohhh no."

"It's small, there's not a huge crowd."

"No way."

"Just you, me and a guitar. That's it."

"I can't do that!"

"Why not?"

She didn't answer.

"Here, I'll get you the address and directions. I believe in you, be brave," he said, his tone light.

OoOoO

Angel waited two hours. He was about to leave when the tiny blonde walked in the double doors.

He'd never met her but since all this came about he'd seen photos of her and he had seen video clips and such so it wasn't hard to pick her out of a crowd. No matter the size or amount of people he kind of figured she'd stand out.

As he stood up, for the first time in a long while, he felt nervous.

OoOoO

"Hi. You're still here."

"Yep. And you showed up."

"I still don't think I can do this."

She wasn't kidding about the nerves, she looked up at the stage and he could see her shaking slightly. "Hey," he called out softly and her head whipped back around to him, her green eyes nearly making him lose his breath. "You're going to be okay. It's just you and me."

OoOoO

Lorne didn't make a big deal out of it in front of the pretty blonde but there was no mistaking he knew what was going on.

Angel pushed the chairs as close together as they could be, faced them toward one another rather than looking out at the people below. And something magical happened on that stage that night.

The song - in his opinion - sounded better than it ever had. Buffy blocked everything but him out, relaxed, and soared. And, for the first time it wasn't just a song, it wasn't just words... they had meaning behind them, life began to imitate the art they'd created months prior.

**The End.**


End file.
